The 49ers magic is back

The heir to “The Catch” deserves a stronger nickname than any of the 49ers could dream up on Saturday night.

“The Throw?” coach Jim Harbaugh ventured. “The Throw and Catch?”

“The Grab,” offered tight end Vernon Davis, the man who pulled the 14-yard game-winner into the end zone and walked off the field in tears of ecstasy.

“The Catch 3?” left tackle Joe Staley suggested, showing his grasp of 49ers’ playoff lore by remembering Terrell Owens’ spectacular catch to beat Green Bay in 1999 as well as Dwight Clark’s soaring leap into history 30 years ago.

But the touchdown that brought down the exalted Saints 36-32 and sent the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game transcended football terminology. It was “The Dagger.”

In the franchise’s first playoff game in nine years, the 49ers played lethally all day long. The defense rattled bones and forced five turnovers before yielding to the overpowering Saints late in the game. As the assassin’s role shifted to the offense, Alex Smith somehow won a shootout with the NFL’s Sundance Kid.

The last 4 minutes and 2 seconds of the game saw the teams trade four touchdowns, including scoring passes of 44 and 66 yards from Drew Brees.

By statistics and reputation, Smith can’t compare with the Saints’ quarterback. But Harbaugh’s arrival has transformed the former No. 1 draft pick, infusing Smith with the kind of instincts that once earned the coach, in his finest time as an NFL signal-caller, the nickname “Captain Comeback.”

Rallies against Detroit, Seattle and Philadelphia hinted at the possibility that Smith could bring the 49ers back. With 9 seconds left, his bold throw to Davis, who took a hit and came down safely with the ball, matched the greatest finishes of the 49ers’ dynasty years.

“We move on, and we move on in spectacular fashion,” Harbaugh said succinctly.

The team, in its first year under Harbaugh’s command, now sits one win from the Super Bowl. Today’s game between Green Bay and the New York Giants will determine where the 49ers play next.

A Giants upset would place the NFC title game in Candlestick. A Packers win would take the 49ers to Wisconsin on Sunday for a showdown with the defending Super Bowl champs and Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback infamously snubbed by San Francisco in favor of the slow-blooming Smith during the draft seven years ago.

For either possible opponent, watching the 49ers’ defense on tape could be like viewing a horror flick. One minute, 49ers safety Donte Whitner was realigning skeletal structures. The next, rookie Aldon Smith was swooping down on Drew Brees, clawing at the quarterback like a cartoon monster, or rolling around on the ground like a puppy to celebrate a sack.

And they will see Justin Smith, Justin Smith, and more Justin Smith. Earlier in the week, the 11-year veteran had said of the Saints, “They’re not Houdini out there,” and he backed up the statement Saturday.

A force all season for the 49ers, Smith turned demonic in the playoff game. On one play, the 11-year veteran shoved a Saints lineman back toward Brees, reached around, grabbed the quarterback by the collar and dragged him down in a three-man pile.

“This game meant a lot to him. He was going to bring it and he did,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “In training camp this year, on the cover of our notebook was a picture of him, and I had on there ‘0-1.’ He had played only one playoff game in his career (with Cincinnati), and he was 0-1. Our main goal from the first day of training camp was to get him back in the playoffs and get that goose egg off the board. And we did.”

The defensive players were not happy about letting Brees muster his poise to take the lead away twice in the final minutes. But the Saints’ offense can inflict damage on any team, anytime.

On the sidelines, Staley admitted he was briefly unnerved by the 66-yard strike from Brees to Jimmy Graham, which gave the Saints a three-point lead with 1:37 left.

“To be honest, I was (down) for about 3 seconds,” the tackle said. “Then we came together and we all said: ‘We can win this.’ We knew it was on the offense now.”

The winning play looked a lot like the one that Owens and Steve Young engineered 13 years ago, right down to the tearful response by the receiver.

Davis has been an emotional core of this team for a long time, and he has a special chemistry with the quarterback. The two connected on a 47-yard pass with 40 seconds left that could have set up a tying field goal attempt. But the team that lived by David Akers’ leg all year long didn’t need him this time.

Smith took one last shot at his favorite receiver, planting the ball right on Davis’ sternum, directly at the heart. As it turns out, that is the 49ers’ most invulnerable spot.